Where The Second Sun Rides: I Try To Make A Video Game About Deaf Rollerblade Cowgirl Spiderman

[Vinegrape]

OK, so I don't really know what I'm doing here.

My coding skills are about on par with a depressed walrus, and the last time I tried to make a video game, I was eleven years old and the end result mostly consisted of me stealing sprites and backgrounds from Yu-Gi-Oh! cards.

But I love writing, I love making things, and I've watched a shitload of game design videos on YouTube. So as a creative exercise, I thought it'd be fun to put together my own pitch for a video game.

A couple key points:

1) I'm working off the assumption that I have an unlimited budget.

2) Literally everything here is subject to change. Especially names, because naming things is the worst.

3) I want to focus on game mechanics for right now, because that's the thing I'm most concerned about for this exercise. This means that plot and characters are going to be left intentionally vague. However, there will still be several worldbuilding details to help pitch the scenario and give you a general idea of what I'm going for. I may change my stance on this in the future.

4) If you're reading this, that means I'm looking for feedback as a designer and that I trust you to be honest with me.

OK? OK.

OVERVIEW

To put it in Wikipedia terms: Where The Second Sun Rides is an imaginary, action-adventure platformer with RPG elements. I'm going for a light-hearted, Nintendo-y aesthetic. The central mechanic is a cowboy's lasso, which you can use as a grappling hook to move quickly across the map Spider-Man style, solve puzzles, tie enemies up and/or steal their weapons.

Or to put it in super-reductive sales pitch terms: Spider-Man meets Ratchet and Clank meets Zelda meets Oregon Trail meets Kirby meets Red Dead Redemption.

The game takes place in the land of Mosaic, a colorful fantasy setting loosely built around the question "what if the Tunguska Event happened in the American Wild West?" Years ago, a massive meteorite crashed down on Mosaic's west coast. The impact was so great that whole swathes of land were shot up into the sky...and they just stayed there as little floating islands. People and animals mutated. Plants grew back differently. If you look over the western horizon, you can see the meteorite glowing from miles away, so bright that it can light up the night sky. That's why the people of Mosaic call it the Second Sun.

Sam Sovereign, the mysterious railroad tycoon, has promised five million to the first one to reach the Second Sun and bring it back to him. Now every cowpoke, explorer, and two-bit crook is scrambling west to get the fortune for themselves.

You play as Tumble, an adventurous cowgirl from the small mining blimp town of Huckleberry. Your mission? Swing and skate your way through the untamed west, outfox the compotetion, and uncover the mysteries of the Second Sun.




(Source, created by hakuku. This isn't Tumble's final design or anything, but it should give you a general idea of what I'm going for.)

Next post is gonna be all about Tumble herself and the game's core mechanics: the lasso, the rollerskates and stealing weapons.

 

[Vinegrape]

(Don't mind me, just going for it again like nothing ever happened.)

So this post is all about our player character, Tumble. (I wanted a name that sounded very Nintendo-y.) She's an adventurous cowgirl traveling west to find a meteorite. She also happens to be deaf. We'll get to that in a bit.

On her adventure, Tumble has two major tools at her disposal: the Rollerspurs and the Lasso Gloves. These are the game's core mechanics, and you'll need to use both of them in tandem if you want to reach the Second Sun.

Rollerspurs

-They're basically basically weaponized, all-terrain, Wild-West-Style heelys.
-Rollerspurs are multi-spurred cowboy boots that can transform into rollerblades - the spurs move from the heels to the soles of the foot.
-Tumble can skate unimpeded across any solid, non-hazardous surface, including dirt, grass, sand, snow, ice, railroad tracks, tree branches and more. She can even skate across walls for a short time. Just stay away from electrified rails or acid pits or whatever and she'll be fine.
-Rollerspurs come with a dash function which you can use for a quick burst of speed, even in the air.
-They also cancel out any fall damage, so feel free to jump off cliffs and make mistakes.
-In combat, Tumble fights primarily with her kicks. Picture Chun-Li at a roller derby and you get a general idea. She rarely uses her hands, cause she prefers to keep them free for speaking and lassoing.
-With careful timing, Tumble can grind on projectiles and certain enemies. This can also be used to parry attacks.
-It's important to note that Rollerspurs aren't unique to Tumble. They're a fairly common thing in this setting, and you'll sometimes run into NPCs or enemies who use them. There's even a roller derby sidequest you can play around with. Tumble isn't special because she has a unique toy, she's special because she's really, really good with them.

Lasso Gloves

-A pair of leather gloves with built-in grappling hook launchers, which fire super-long lassos that can grab just about anything. A very unsubtle stand-in for Spider-Man's web shooters, I know.
-I was wondering what a Spider-Man game might look like if it wasn't set in New York. Instead of a super-vertical series of buildings, here we have a weird fantasy world with much more varied environments. You can swing from treetops, mountains, canyon cliffs, waterfalls, icicles, floating islands, steampunk airships or giant monsters.
-In puzzles, you can use them to pull objects like levers or collapsible bridges.
-In combat, they can be used to move quickly across the arena, grab objects or projectiles to hurl at enemies, or steal their weapons. Enemies have to be stunned before you can lasso them, usually by hitting them at the right time.
-The Lasso Gloves and Rollerspurs are designed to complement each other. While traveling, you seamlessly switch between the two depending on the terrain. For example, you run out of ground to skate on, and start swinging from a nearby grapple point. And in combat, melee strikes will stun enemies and set them up for the lasso.

Wrangling Weapons

-So let's talk about that bit about stealing weapons.
-When certain enemies are stunned, you can steal their weapons by lassoing them out of their hands.
-All weapons are at least vaguely connected to a western theme.
-All weapons have an ammo counter, and break automatically once they hit zero. Most weapons can be charged for a more powerful attack, but they cost extra ammo compared to a normal attack.
-Here's a few examples:

• Revolver: your basic six-shooter. A normal attack fires a weak projectile, a charged attack releases a stronger shot at the cost of all the ammo.
• Guitar: an extra melee weapon. You can charge it up for a musical shockwave attack.
• Horseshoes: western-style throwing stars. Charged up, they'll bounce and hit multiple enemies.
• Water Cannon: a device that fires pressurized water. Regular attack is a shotgun-esque blast, charged is a continuous, steady stream like a hose crossed with a flamethrower.
• Cacti: naturally growing caltrops. Scatter them across the arena to trip up enemies, or charge it up to create a needle-spraying explosive mine.
• Horse: an angry horse you freed from his asshole rider. Release him, and he'll kill or seriously damage everything on screen. Deliberately overpowered, cannot be charged, can only be used once.

Deafness

-Now I mentioned that Tumble is deaf. Let's talk about that.
-I got the idea while I was thinking about traditional silent protagonists like Link or Gordan Freeman. Their silence isn't a part of the narrative so much as a part of the game interface. Most of the time, you're not meant to literally think these characters can't speak. It's just a tool to help the player project any characterization they want onto them and immerse them in the experience.
-So I thought, "why not expand on that? Why not use that as a springboard for characterization and worldbuilding?"
-So Tumble is deaf. She communicates primarily through writing and ASL, the latter of which has subtitles available. She can speak verbally, but she prefers not to.
-Mosaic is a setting with widespread sign language, so most people have no trouble understanding her. You might run into someone who needs things written down for them or say, a weird, faceless robot that Tumble can't lip read, but those are exceptions and not the rule.
-Tumble also writes in a diary that can be accessed through the main menu. While this is mainly to help the player keep track of their objectives, this would also help flesh out her character while still keeping somewhat close to the traditional game protagonist.
-The game would still include music and audio cues, for the player's benefit.
-I want to include a scene where Tumble listens to music by putting her hand on a speaker.

Stuff I'm Kinda On the Fence About

-I'm a little worried that her moveset is too unfocused.

-How accurately lip reading should be depicted. It's not super-reliable in real-life, and I'm not sure how much I should fudge the details for an easier narrative.

-I've thought about giving her a steampunk hearing aid. The setting's weirdly anachornistic enough that it wouldn't be a problem, though the story would need some mild rewrites.

And there we go. Next post, whenever that happens, will be about the game world, level progression, the main hub and some of the characters Tumble will meet.

 

[sportoner]

The Cowboy Lasso delights me. It increases the terrain importance, requiring a careful analysis of the surroundings. How will you highlight the objects the Lasso can grab?

When a game takes away the weapon I like, it saddens me. A pre-boss fight preparation will tire more. I'll have to go to the location with the enemy, steal the weapon and return.

Only the Rollerspurs will always stay with me. This toughens the combat and limits the tactic options.

The Lasso becomes crucial. In the melee, it increases agility and complements the Rollerspurs. With the Lasso, I can outsmart the enemy. I have to get good in it to win against hard bosses.

Learning the Lasso may be hard. But still, I like how many possibilities this tool opens.

 

[Eventua]

What a cool, delightful concept for a game! Definitely something to work at and expand upon! The basic premise of the world and story is intriguing, and Tumble seems like a really fun player character!

I'll be honest, while the idea stealing weapons temporarily is neat, it would also be kind of cool if there were moments where you could unlock permanent versions of those weapons - possibly as rewards for boss fights or collectibles? Would also let you set up puzzles involving certain weapons that don't necessarily depend on defeating certain enemies.
With maybe the horse being unlocked only as an optional "you already beat the game 110% but if you wanna go ham with infinite horses on a new game+ then feel free"?

Even if that isn't the case tho', the lasso + rollerspurs combination idea offers a huge amount of options for puzzle and combat design. Tempted to say they should get upgrades as you go, so maybe early on your rollerspurs don't work on frozen or especially hostile terrain, but you can later upgrade them for those?

The decision to make Tumble deaf is also a really neat idea that works well with genre conventions in a thoughtful and inclusive way. I also like the idea of having creatures/characters that she can't speak to because they don't have limbs or know ASL, and little moments like, I dunno... if jukeboxes are a thing in the game, having her hand placed against it when you play a song.

Wondering how easy it would be to convey ASL in a presumably more cartoony environment, but I have confidence it'd be doable.